December 2010
129 posts
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I Procrastinate
And that’s the thing on which I’m going to focus in 2011. I figure if I can stop procrastinating, it’ll solve about ninety percent of my other problems. We’ll see.
Twenty-ten, you were a peach. Twenty-eleven’s got some big shoes to fill.
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“New Year’s Day - Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good...”
– Mark Twain (via aatombomb)
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Gallup poll: Obama ends year with slightly lower... →
From the Los Angeles Times:
Obama’s standing is better than two recent presidents who went on to win reelection. At comparable points during their presidencies, Bill Clinton had a 40% approval rating and Ronald Reagan had a 43% rating. Two one-term presidents, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, stood at 51% and 63%, respectively. George W. Bush finished his sophomore year at 61%.
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3 dead after tornado hits tiny NW Arkansas town on... →
From the Los Angeles Times:
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A tornado fueled by an unusually warm winter air sliced through parts of northwestern Arkansas early on New Year’s Eve, killing three people, injuring several others and knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses.
The dead were killed at Cincinnati, a hamlet of about 100 about three miles from the Oklahoma border....
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The Pitch for The Tourist
HOLLYWOOD PERSON 1: “Hey: let’s make a movie where Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie stand around Venice, wear great clothes, and stare longingly at one another.”
HOLLYWOOD PERSON 2: “Here’s a bag of money. Make it happen.”
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Geraldine Doyle, 86, dies; one-time factory worker... →
From The Washington Post:
Geraldine Doyle, 86, who as a 17-year-old factory worker became the inspiration for a popular World War II recruitment poster that evoked female power and independence under the slogan “We Can Do It!,” died Dec. 26 at a hospice in Lansing, Mich.
Her daughter, Stephanie Gregg, said the cause of death was complications from severe arthritis.
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Jobless claims hit lowest mark in more than two... →
From The Hill:
Weekly unemployment claims dropped to 388,000 last week, hitting their lowest rate in more than two years.
Coupled with other signs of economic growth, the report from the Labor Department comes as welcome news for both the White House and congressional Republicans, who agreed to a massive $858 billion tax package this month meant in part to spark the economy and lower the...
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Bleak prospects for comprehensive immigration... →
From The Hill:
Just days after Congress killed the DREAM Act, voices on all sides of the immigration reform debate say it’s unlikely there will be much movement on the issue during the next two years. With Republicans poised to assume House control in January, immigrant-rights advocates see scant chance legislation to grant illegal immigrants any kind of foothold in the U.S. could move through...
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“I think the media story of the year, in 2010, was the New York Times’ discovery...”
– NBC’s Brian Williams on “Morning Joe,” via The Atlantic Wire. (via langer)
I’ve already posted the video, but these words bear repeating.
(via kateoplis)
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Robert Reich: New Years Prediction (II): The U.S.... →
robertreich:
What will happen to the US economy in 2011? If you’re referring to profits of big corporations and Wall Street, next year is likely to be a good one. But if you’re referring to average American workers, far from good.
The two American economies — the Big Money economy and the Average…
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Robert Reich: New Years Prediction (I): The Tea... →
robertreich:
Next week starts the new Congress, and with it the Tea Party conservatives. What’s their strategy? What will they rally around?
They’ll grouse endlessly about government spending but I don’t think they’ll use any particular spending bill to mobilize and energize their grass roots. The big…
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“Today millions of young women who benefit from the struggles of their mothers...”
– Isabel Allende (via changeis)
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Obama's War on Inequality →
From Slate:
[I]f Obama has declared war on inequality, inequality seems to be winning. In the deal he just cut with congressional Republicans, the president not only agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts for the highest earners but also to eliminate the estate tax for all but the microscopic percentage of people passing down more than $5 million—causing inheritance tax proponent Ray Madoff...
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Ready or Not
Two weeks from right about now, the 88th General Assembly will convene, and incoming Members of the Arkansas House of Representatives will be sworn into office.
I made the decision to run in March 2009 after discussing it with my family; we were visiting my sister in brother-in-law in Florida. (I actually made the decision in their dining room, which is where I happen to be writing this right...
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“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in...”
– President Dwight D. Eisenhower - Harper’s
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The Progressive Honor Roll of 2010 →
From The Nation:
The year 2010 will not be remembered as a halcyon year for progressives. But in such years the truest believers and battlers stand out all the more clearly, and patterns are set for the victories of the years to come.
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2010's Biggest Energy Disasters →
From Mother Jones:
The list focuses on some of the deadliest incidents, so it leaves out other serious environmental calamities. Take, for example, the release of 538,000 pounds of chemicals, including benzene (a known carcinogen), at BP’s Texas City refinery. The release began on April 6, two weeks before the Gulf spill, and continued for 40 days. The long-term health impacts for...
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Sotomayor, Kagan shift Supreme Court debates to... →
From the Los Angeles Times:
[T]he tenor of the debate has changed in recent months, now that President Obama’s two appointees to the court, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, have joined the fray and reenergized the liberal wing. Gone are the mismatches where the Scalia wing overshadowed reserved and soft-spoken liberals like now-retired Justices David H. Souter and John Paul Stevens....
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In ‘Daily Show’ Role on 9/11 Bill, Echoes of... →
From The New York Times:
Though he might prefer a description like “advocacy satire,” what Mr. Stewart engaged in that night — and on earlier occasions when he campaigned openly for passage of the bill — usually goes by the name “advocacy journalism.”
There have been other instances when an advocate on a television show turned around public policy almost immediately by concerted focus on an...
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Deepwater Horizon's Final Hours →
From The New York Times:
The worst of the explosions gutted the Deepwater Horizon stem to stern.
Crew members were cut down by shrapnel, hurled across rooms and buried under smoking wreckage. Some were swallowed by fireballs that raced through the oil rig’s shattered interior. Dazed and battered survivors, half-naked and dripping in highly combustible gas, crawled inch by inch in pitch...
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“It is to be protected against violent crimes driven by bigotry, it’s to be able...”
– Rep. Barney Frank - The Huffington Post
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Central Arkansas growing weary of relentless... →
From CNN:
More than 500 measurable earthquakes have been reported in central Arkansas since September 20, ranging in magnitude from a barely noticeable 1.8 to a very noticeable 4.0 (recorded on October 11), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Geologists can’t say whether they’ll stop anytime soon.
Steve Wilson is looking forward to the quakes going away, he said.
“In...
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Nordic Quack →
From Slate:
Every year on Dec. 24 at 3 p.m., half of Sweden sits down in front of the television for a family viewing of the 1958 Walt Disney Presents Christmas special, “From All of Us to All of You.” Or as it is known in Sverige,Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul: “Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas.”
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Robert Reich: The Attack on American Education →
robertreich:
Over the long term, the only way we’re going to raise wages, grow the economy, and improve American competitiveness is by investing in our people — especially their educations.
You’ve probably seen the reports. American students rank low on international standards of educational performance….
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Robert Reich: The Real Reason Why Republicans... →
robertreich:
Has the President’s olive branch on extending the Bush tax breaks for the rich opened a new era in bi-partisanship? Not a chance.
Anyone who isn’t worried about loose nukes – nuclear warheads that can travel long distances, and could find their way into terrorist hands – should have his head…
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F.C.C. Is Set to Regulate Net Access →
From The New York Times:
The Federal Communications Commission appears poised to pass a controversial set of rules that broadly create two classes of Internet access, one for fixed-line providers and the other for the wireless Net.
The proposed rules of the online road would prevent fixed-line broadband providers like Comcast and Qwest from blocking access to sites and applications. The rules,...
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Dems reach magic number on arms treaty as GOP... →
From The Hill:
Senate Democrats appear to have the nine Republican votes they need to ratify the New START nuclear treaty this week and give President Obama his third major victory of the lame-duck session.
Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) told reporters Monday afternoon that he would vote to ratify the treaty and also support a motion to end debate, which the Senate will consider Tuesday.
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More Child Brides, Please →
From Mother Jones:
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) has yet to assume the gavel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But in these waning days of the 111th congress, she’s wasting no time hacking away at this country’s credibility as a champion of basic human decency. Her most recent masterpiece: killing a bill that commits the country to combating forced child marriages abroad,...
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Death Penalty Down in U.S., Figures Show →
From The New York Times:
States are continuing a trend of executingc fewer prisoners and juries are wary of sentencing criminal defendants to die, according to year-end figures compiled by a group that opposes the death penalty.
The 46 executions in 2010 constituted a nearly 12 percent drop from the previous year’s total of 52, according to the group, Death Penalty Information Center, which...